THE future for Stirling County looks vibrant with both their under-18 and under-16 sides contesting cup finals at Murrayfield tomorrow.


The under-18 side will be aiming to lift the RBS Youth League Cup for the tenth time by seeing off the challenge of Selkirk Youth Club, while their under-16s will aim to make it a Bridgehaugh double by beating Glasgow Hawks.

However, both sets of opponents will present a tough final hurdle to overcome, with the under-18 clash a repeat of last season’s final which was won by Stirling.

Josh Welsh, the Selkirk Youth Club centre and captain, landed a match-winning penalty in their semi-final win against Boroughmuir and said: “Last year’s final was really fast. We weren’t really used to the pace and Stirling were a lot more physical than us.

“At the start of this season we weren’t really tipped to do anything as we had a really young squad but we’ve won the Border semi-junior league, a couple of sevens tournaments and we’ve got to the cup final.”

His Stirling counterpart, 17-year-old stand-off Jack Urquhart also played last year and said: “It was a close game but we managed to run away with it towards the end of the second-half.”

In the under-16s Stirling are hoping to go one better than last season when a 17-17 draw in the final meant they shared the spoils with Ayr.

Their captain Matt Duncan said: “We’ve had a really good season and are in a good position to win the league. I think it will be a close game on Sunday.”

Hawks captain Andrew Davidson said: “We’ve had a good season and are undefeated for two years so we’re really looking forward to the final.”

Prior to the under-16 final, which kicks-off at 2.30pm, the under-16 and under-18 Youth League Bowl finals between Boroughmuir and GHA and Perthshire Colts and Peebles Colts respectively will commence at 1pm.

This article was posted on 29-Apr-2012, 11:25 by Hugh Barrow.